The wins were of candidates who kept to a socialist or at least soft left agenda.
In the 1980s The Guardian had an editor who although liberal at least kept the ‘truth is sacred’ banner on the paper and was a real journalist. They would not have had between 3 and 7 anti Corbyn articles a day as they did in the run up to the 2019 election. The Times was taken over by Murdoch in 1981 but it took a while for his influence to really take hold.
In the 1980s the Independent actually was and the Daily Mirror was still a left wing paper.
People had had enough of the Tories by 1997 and anyone would have won against them which means that although the press was still predominantly right wing it wasn’t as rabidly propagandist as it is now. There was a far greater proportion of journalists to commentators for example and the same applies to the BBC.
It was in 1997 under Blair that the NEC was given the power that it now has and that is where much of the problem has been. In the 1980s it had a much larger union representation. It had less involvement in policy but more in management and greater disciplinary powers.
Starmer is parachuting candidates in all over the country over the heads of the local CLPs. How can the party recover without removing all of these people who are only in the party to keep it on the right and to prevent the left from gaining any power?